.TH CRONTAB 1
.SH NAME
crontab \- User crontab manipulation
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B crontab \-c
.RI [ user ]
.I file
.br
.B crontab \-l
.RI [ user ]
.br
.B crontab \-r
.RI [ user ]
.br
.B crontab \-p
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B crontab
program allows users to manipulate their personal crontab files.  These
files are hidden in
.BI /usr/spool/crontabs/ user
where
.I user
is the login name of a given user.  The system daemon
.B cron
uses these crontabs, among others, to run tasks that are to be repeated at
regular intervals.  See
.BR crontab (5)
on what a good crontab file should look like.
.PP
Only the superuser can specify a user name to manipulate the crontab of a
given user.  Any other user can only touch their own crontab file.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-c\fR [\fIuser\fR] \fIfile\fR
Install
.I file
as the crontab file of
.IR user .
.TP
\fB\-l\fR [\fIuser\fR]
List the crontab file of
.I user
to standard output.
.TP
\fB\-r\fR [\fIuser\fR]
Remove the crontab file of
.IR user .
.TP
\fB\-p\fR
Tell cron to reload its tables.  Useful for system administrators to signal
a change to any of the system crontab files.  Changes made by the
.B crontab
program are signalled automatically.  (Mnemonic: \-p = "ping".)
.SH FILES
.TP \w'/usr/spool/crontabs/user'u+5n
.BI /usr/spool/crontabs/ user
Per user personal crontab file.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR crontab (5),
.BR cron (8).
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.B Crontab
preparses a new crontab and only installs it if correct.  All errors are
sent to standard error, messages about installing a new table and telling
.B cron
to reload are sent to standard output.
.SH BUGS
.B Crontab
misses a
.B \-e
option that other implementations of this command allow one to edit the
current crontab and install the result.  Seems quite handy until you try to
install a new crontab from an automated script.  That's why this command
has a
.B \-c
option that installs a prepared crontab file.  Use
.PP
.RS
.nf
crontab \-l >/tmp/tab
${EDITOR\-vi} /tmp/tab
crontab \-c /tmp/tab
.fi
.RE
.PP
to get the same effect as
.BR "crontab \-e" .
.SH AUTHOR
Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)

.\"
.\" $PchId: crontab.1,v 1.3 2000/07/17 18:51:04 philip Exp $
